Previous research has linked teachers' physical attractiveness and students' evaluations of teaching. We expanded on this literature by using data from RateMyProfessors.com (RMP), a database popular among college students. Additionally, we examined the unique variance that physical attractiveness explains in student evaluations of teaching while controlling for factors previously shown to predict teaching evaluations (e.g., rater interest, ease of professor or course). We selected student evaluations from 2,281 professors listed on RMP. After controlling for the number of student ratings, rater interest, and ease, we found that physical attractiveness (i.e., hotness) accounted for over 8% of the variance in student evaluations of teaching.
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